Steven A. Bush - February 9, 2025
But Have Not Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (ESV) What kind of love is Paul writing about here? The sacrificial kind of love that prompts us to be committed to the highest good of another. We often hear these verses read at weddings but these words weren't originally penned for a marriage ceremony. They were written to a not-so-loving church in Corinth where some looked down on the poor, openly engaged in immorality, wore their spiritual gifts like badges, and where some even got drunk at Communion! So were Paul's words written exclusively for that church in Corinth or did our Lord have a broader audience in mind?
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, John 13:34-35, John 15:13, 1 John 4:7-11